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For many years I have been following a trajectory that is set in motion by the last painting. A chronology driven by necessity, the obvious next step. It seems to be a lifetime to come to that momentary encounter with an authentic idea and then to paint it. Then I never leave it.
There is one short span of inspiration, seeing it and how to do it. The proportion of the piece is the initial imperative: space and containment. It is a form of perfection in relationship to its parts. A way to measure the unknowable. The part contains the whole. A mustard seed contains the universe.
Bringing together space and material, seizing it in time within its own boundaries, it is complete and autonomous. Reduce and materialize…reduce and materialize…take away until every thing is necessary to be everything possible yet nothing at all.
The painting forms itself by absorbing light, then dissolves in the glow of its radiance on the wall, now the painting as well. As with everything, it comes and goes. The painting only exists as the viewer perceives it, as its presence is felt before it is conceptualized and referenced, before it is conditioned and other than what it is. Presence is pure, contaminated only by analysis.
It is this very act of seeing that gives meaning to art. I am constantly humbled by the challenge to paint something that offers an invitation for such an experience.
Deborah Salt
Los Angeles, CA
May 2010
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